For the technically savvy out there, social media may be the bane of an existence, or it may be an addiction. Many rise in the morning and check Facebook before they brush their teeth; it’s the last thing they do before they hit the sheets.

Anyone who has any familiarity with Facebook or similar social media sites knows that every now and then, someone will post something along the lines of “Share this to help raise awareness for (name the cause).” The cause can be anything from cancer to the plight of elephants being poached out of existence for their tusks. Dutifully, many people have passed the message along, many of them feeling as if, by sharing with their social media friends, they have actually done something for the cause.

The problem is, they haven’t. They have simply pressed a button and shared. The fact that in doing so, many feel as though they have legitimately contributed has coined a new term: “slacktivism.”

It’s a pretty accurate term: doing little, resulting in little, but allowing hundreds, thousands, millions of people to feel like they’ve done something.

Anyone tied into social media these days has no doubt seen the “Ice Bucket Challenge” that’s been going around. One person challenges another person to dump ice water on themselves, video or photograph the event, then post it on social media and pass the challenge along.

It was an interesting concept and before it was linked to an actual cause, totally useless. That is, until a courageous young man stepped up and turned an aimless challenge into something else entirely.

That man is Peter Frates, a 29-year-old with ALS, also known as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease. Like Gehrig, Frates was a baseball player. Like Gehrig, Frates will die from the disease — there’s no cure. But Frates decided to own the Ice Bucket Challenge and sent out the challenge to his Boston friends: do the challenge or donate $100 within 24 hours to the ALS Association.

It caught on. It spread. Over a million videos have been posted on Facebook. Over 200,000 new donors have sent money to the ALS Association. And over $13 million dollars has been raised to research the disease in a few short weeks.

That’s incredible.

It shows just how valuable social media can be. But the Ice Bucket Challenge, no matter how worthy the cause, is a trend. Like all trends, it will fade away. Many who were swept up in the fun of it may just go back to “helping” causes by clicking a mouse and sharing a post.

Perhaps, in the future, social media users should raise more than awareness. Perhaps next time someone is tempted to click and share, rather than push that button, they should think about making a donation instead.

Do a little, add a little to the results — that, right there, is doing a lot.